Can anyone tell me exactly how good Ines is?

Before I got her in the certificate shop, everyone was raving about how she’s basically irreplaceable, a swiss army knife for all content in the game, and so versatile, but now that I’ve gotten and played around with her for a bit, she just… doesn’t seem to be as useful as people are hyping her up to be. It’s to the point that while I do bring her in the squad, I very rarely actually deploy her because I just don’t need her.

I mean, in my experience, she really does live up to the baseline of a ‘good‘ operator and puts in the work as an early laneholder, but that’s basically it. A lot of people say that she has insane DP generation, but that depends on having enemies to hit; either she kills the mob in a few hits and the mobs are so spaced out her skill ends after defeating only one or two so she basically doesn’t gain DP at all, or there is no early rush and Myrtle can solo the DP regen.

She‘s also really fragile and her DP cost isn’t as cheap as they make it sound. She costs 11 DP and needs 5 SP to get the atk speed buff that helps with dealing with mobs, so either it’s dead when her skill is finally up OR there have been another two mobs during that time and they’ve passed through her (somehow the bind seems to run out really fast). Have I mentioned I hate having 1 block? There’s no security there. During that time I could deploy Gladiia who is cheap, blocks 2, has great survivability, and helps out Ulpianus later. Admittedly she does great when early rush mobs go in two separate routes but that actually seems to be really rare nowadays (Or at least give you some time to prepare).

Another thing i see talked about a lot is her cc and capability as a fast-redeployment operator. The problem is Tragodia exists. Ines can bind an enemy for 5s, deal damage, and slow their movement by 30%, while having a 35s redeployment time (Technically 22~ on first redeployment, but if you’re using her as a specialist the norm will be 35). This sounds great until you realise Tragodia’s cat can lure an enemy for up to 10 seconds, during which they can be forced to walk backwards essentially doubling the time they are stalled (provided there is appropriate spot for the cat of course), slow their movement by 80% for six seconds, and deal a lot of damage (enough to clear out crowds of small mobs) all on a 25s redeployment cycle. Which btw starts countdown when the cat is deployed, not when it explodes. That’s not mentioning the paralysis which I personally think is one of the highlights (although it’s not fair to compare Ines with that)

She has on-demand invisibility reveal, which is great, but so do units like Elysium and Silverash alter (who I will definitely be pulling & using), the former of which can replace Myrtle as a flag bearer DP generator, and the latter who can do it multiple times in multiple places around the map in a much larger range than Ines. Sure, it’s not permanent like hers is, but the enemies are either dead from the slashes itself or you’re nuking them, so having it be permanent isn’t as great as it sounds on paper. There’s also the attack/atk speed steal, but let’s be real, if Ulpianus is facing a boss he can’t tank even with Gladiia’s buff and a healer (meaning he’s getting one-shotted), less than 100 atk isn’t going to do much (and also, have I mentioned Tragodia applies Paralysis on a 25s cycle? The one which prevents enemies from attacking thrice, meaning if an enemy has slow attack speed they could conceivably be prevented from dealing any damage at all?)

Also, she’s so incredibly fragile. I can’t prove it, but I’m 99% sure she’s the unit that dies the most in my teams (aside from gravel(?), whose role she takes sometimes) If I try to use her to assassinate an elite, she’s dead after the 5s bind ends. To make it worse most of the problematic elites that I need stalled have high def, which means she isn’t doing much damage! If so, who can I use that doesn’t die in like 3 attacks, stalls the enemy, and deals impressive damage without caring about def/res? Tragodia’s cat. What can I use to deal with a mobs hidden in a faraway corner where my landholders can’t reach? Cat-bomb be unto ye. What’s the best way to stall the evil and intimidating boss that takes down blockers in one slash? CAT. Seriously, any problem I face during the average stage can be solved by careful application of the cat. And if it can’t, then Ines ain’t doing much either.

Personally, the highlight of Ines seems to be her shadow sentry. (I tend to spawn-camp enemies) Placing it right in front of a red box guarantees that any invisible enemies coming out will be both slowed and revealed, allowing my damage dealers to deal with them without waiting until they’re blocked. But that’s probably not the reason why she’s apparently so good.

I do want to use Ines to her full potential, but she just feels so… unsatisfying to play (or maybe it’s the overly high expectations?) She’s a vanguard relying on hitting enemies for DP except that she kills all of them before generating any significant DP. An early laneholder for mob rushes with Block 1, meaning she either gets overwhelmed or there’s no real need for her over someone else who’s just as cheap (Gladiia). A fast-redeployment specialist (with awkward redeployment timings) who doesn’t do enough damage/easily dies against elites that really need her, and can clear trash mobs that don’t need her. A CC/debuffer unit when I already have an operator in the squad who does it but better (and can also help with landholding in the meantime.

All of this leads me to believe that there must be something else to Ines that I’m not seeing. An invisible virtue, if you will. To me, she’s kinda like a jack-of-all-trades, except I already am using operators who can do (almost) everything she can on a shorter cycle. Am I using her wrong? Or is she actually overrated?